KTXD Replaces ME-TV With Local Programs

London Broadcasting Co.-owned KTXD Dallas (DMA 5) has ended ME-TV affiliation, the station says, “in order to provide more local programming in response to requests from viewers.”

KTXD says its original programs like The Texas Daily, The Broadcast, Lone Star Roads, DFW Sports Beat, Troubadour, TX and Bronco Roads “have garnered loyal audiences and been so successful” that last month, London announced it’s expanding the programs to six additional Texas markets, and plans to do the same with new productions.

“KTXD will be a true, independent station and can call its own shots on what we air,” says KTXD General Manager Brian Joyce. “Our audiences want more. Our advertisers want more. And with an expansion of our original local programs to additional stations throughout Texas, we’ll now have the flexibility to give them what they’re asking for.”

Demand from local businesses for advertising inventory has been higher than capacity under the ME-TV relationship. “The decision to partner with KTXD was an easy one,” says Derek Beard, vice president of marketing and sales, Credit Union of Texas. “We appreciate their Texas-roots and the opportunities that their original programming offers to reach our target demographic. We are proud to have been on this journey with them, almost from the ground up, and to have our name associated with such quality programming as Lone Star Roads and The Broadcast. We look forward to continuing to grow with them.”

Currently, KTXD’s original programming airs for more than five hours a day during the week, and several hours on the weekends. A new cooking show, set to debut before the end of the year, will air after The Broadcast weekday mornings. When locally produced programming is not on, KTXD will purchase syndicated classics like Married with Children, All In the Family, I Dream of Jeanie and Mad About You.

Originally produced shows and air times (Monday through Friday):

• 7-8:30 a.m., Mark Davis in the Morning, a talk news show

• 9-11 a.m., The Broadcast, a Texas woman’s lifestyle format

• 11 a.m.–noon, a new cooking show, TBA

• 6-7 p.m., The Texas Daily, a “smart news” commentary

• 9:30-10:30 p.m., The Texas Daily replays

Weekly original programs include:

• Thursday, 7-8 p.m., Lone Star Roads, a Texas music reality show

• Thursday 8:30-9 p.m., Conversations with Scott Murray, a show featuring interviews from high profile DFW people

• Saturday, 7-7:30 p.m., Bronco Roads, Texas travel show

• Saturday, 7:30-8 p.m., Troubadour TX, featuring Texas musicians

KTXD’s sports lineup is beefing up as well. On Saturdays at 6 p.m., DFW Sports Beat, a North Texas week in sports review with Brady Tinker airs and replays on Sunday. During the weekend, viewers watch AAC football, Southland Conference football and SEC basketball.

And on Dec. 9, KTXD will carry the Monday Night Football game pitting the Dallas Cowboys against the Chicago Bears.

“We are excited to watch everything fall into place with our most recent moves to near statewide broadcasting and independence,” Joyce says. “We want to thank our great viewers who are loyal and excited about what we’re doing, and our advertisers for demanding more from us and helping us grow.”

In addition to the Dallas/Fort Worth market, London Broadcasting announced in September that it is expanding KTXD’s original programming to its other six markets: Tyler and Longview; Waco, Temple and Killeen; Corpus Christi; San Angelo; Abilene; and Beaumont and Port Arthur.